Speaking for Spot; On the Road Again

I just received a book from veterinarian Nancy Kay, titled Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks very interesting. Anyone read it? I find the whole issue of medical advocacy fascinating and compelling and terrifying when I’m in the midst of oh, deciding, for example, whether to have Luke’s foreleg amputated or have him undergo radiation therapy for his cancerous tumor. It’s such a good thing that so many of us are informing ourselves about medicine in so many ways, but it’s a double edged sword. Some days I yearn for the old days, in which life was simpler (tell me what should I do, Doctor?). I don’t think it was better (neither for health care professionals or for patients) but lordy it was simpler.

So I welcome Dr. Kay’s book… my own experiences with medicine (for many species, including our own) include working with physicians etc. who pretty much walk on water in my opinion, and others who, at best, motivate me to rip my hair out by the roots, and at worst, cause horrific harm. Let me know if you’ve read Dr. Kay’s book: I will soon (but it’s too heavy to take on the plane!).

I’m leaving in an hour to speak at the Midwest Veterinary Conference in Columbus, Ohio. I pretty much have to swoosh in and out, which is too bad because I’d love more time to attend other lectures and speak with some of the interesting people who will be there. But I have one of those ‘to do’ lists that is amusingly full, undo-ably full (okay, that’s not a word, sorry), so this time of year it just can’t happen. (One of the things I’ll be working on soon is my column for Bark Magazine about sex differences in training and performance of males and females. Thanks so much for your comments; more are still appreciated! I have to send the column in by next Thursday, when I leave town again…

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it’s cold again, was 7 degrees when I got up. Supposed to snow quite a bit tonight and tomorrow, but I’ll be long gone, in balmy Columbus. Yesterday a bird got trapped in the garage, flying desperately against a window on the opposite side of the garage from the door. Sushi and I saw it at the same time, and I was just able to grab her before she got the bird. I put her in the house and surrounded the fluttering thing with my cupped hands. I am not a good enough writer to describe how intense the feeling of that bird was…. the tiniest, lightest, softest thing imaginable, and yet, with an incredible intensity of life force. I felt like I was holding something for the gods in my hand. In that briefest of moments, with that tiny epheremal life in my hands, I felt transformed somehow, and it affected the entire day. The bird, buy the way, a plainly feathered little Junco, flew away without any visible sign of damage.

I hope you have some transforming moments in your day today too. It seems I find them in the what could be thought of as the smallest things…

I am behind on answering your comments, apologies. I’ll try to catch up on the road, but internet connections can be spotty in airports. On Monday I have oral surgery (not a big deal, at least not to the dentist, just a molar pulled) so don’t count on much early in the week. (Or, take what I write with a grain of salt!)

Comments

Trisha, Ah… yes this book on medical advocacy. With the parallels between human medicine and veterinary medicine these days, what a timely book. Even us medical people who own dogs find it challenging to make informed decisions and advocate for our dogs and their needs. Now that there are more options, so important for us to walk that line, find wisdom and balance, and make the appropriate decisions that maintain dignity and a dog life for our dogs. There are benefits and risks associated with these advances, and I have learned to honor my dogs quality of life, even if it means saying no to the latest treatment. Be well, safe travels,
Jude

Hi! Read your book (The Other End of the Leash) two years ago in anticipation of bringing home my border collie pup, Sophie and found it so interesting and thought provoking. It’s so nice to have found your site! Will is gorgeous and quite the character! It’s nice to “meet” you. I look forward to visiting often. 🙂

Hi Trisha,
gratulation that you were able to catch the bird… but next time make it easier for both of you: just take a blanket, put it over the window and other light openings, leave the door open + the bird alone and go back to your house to drink a nice cup of coffee together with Sushi. I bet the bird would long be gone when you come back.
Cheers
Ute (from Germany)

Dr. Kay was on DogRead (yahoo list book club) in December (I think it was) taking questions about Speaking for Spot. She was phenomonal. I think the moderator said their was more traffic during her stay than ever before. After reading the book you might want to go through the archives of DogRead (with all your spare time). I was going through an issue with one of my dogs at the time and found her to be an excellent resource.

I have not read Dr. Kay’s book yet, but I did read her article in The Bark and was very impressed. I have been pressing fellow dog parents to be their dog’s advocate at the vet’s office for a long time, and it has been a rough and frustrating road! There has been so much published over the past ten or so years concerning over-vaccinating our pets and the possibility of abusing steroids and antibiotics to treat overt symptoms, while ignoring underlying causes, not to mention that there are so many holistic treatments available out there that many in the traditional veterinary community either choose to ignore or scoff at, etc, etc. Yet, whenever I suggest to a new puppy or dog owner that maybe she should question whether or not her new pet should have all those vaccinations pumped into him at one time, the vet always seems to quip back “Is she a vet?” One of these instances, which caused a friend to back down immediately and agree to her little dog getting the full regimen of vacs, resulted in this little dog collapsing in my friend’s arms in the vet’s parking lot. She was actually lucky that it happened there, because they were able to administer an antidote which saved her life. If this had happened a bit later, in the car on their way home, the dog would have died. No, I’m not a vet, but I do believe in being a well-informed pet owner and I do believe in questioning everything. Ultimately, we are responsible for our pet’s well-being, and as long as our pets are legally considered posessions, rather than sentient beings, the vets cannot be held liable for any ‘mistakes’ or ‘reactions.’

I read an article, possibly by Dr. Kay, about advocating for your dog’s health in Bark recently. My experiences with my own vet (our family vet for 30 years, through a 17 year old dog, 20 year old cat, and another dog who lived 15 years) have always been wonderful and I never challenged his wisdom until our new dog, Milo, came down with recurring diaherra issues. He was tested for everything, and finally the word came back of “food allergies”. We had done our homework on food and used the best food we could afford (not from the grocery store). Now the vet I trusted was encouraging me to move Milo to a canned food based primarily on chicken and rice, available from his practice. Chicken and rice were two of our primary concerns that Milo be causing his allergies! Luckily the vet’s new junior partner vet was more open to the foods we wanted to stick with, and led us to a way to keep our strong belief in human grade foods for animals, but also incorporate the need for a new protein and carb. We settled on duck and potato and were able to find a dry and canned food that both met Milo’s possible allergy needs, provided him with great nutrients and satisfied my need to feed him as well as any other member of our family. I still appreciate our vet and will always travel the 20 miles to go to his practice, but I will also stick up for what I think is best for Milo. Of course, given my other pets have lived quite full lives on grocery store foods, the joke is Milo has to live to be at least 20 or more years to prove me right!

Oh yes and it is a wonderful book. I have been fortunate enough to have Dr. Kay care for my 8 year old Bernese Mountain Dog who I lost to malignant histiocytosis last year and know first hand that she practices what she preaches. When I read her book in the fall I was thrilled to see that her knowledge and bedside manner would now be available to pet owners worldwide and not just to those of us who happen to live near her.

I have shared my life with Bernese Mountain Dogs for 30 years and this is the one book I wish I had in 1979 when I brought my first berner puppy home. Speaking for Spot has been a great source of information for talking with my regular vet about my 3 year old Berner’s vaccinations and the chapter on financing veterinary care was invaluable in deciding, for the first time, whether pet insurance made sense for us. The depth of Dr. Kay’s compassion is clear in the chapters on dealing with a cancer diagnosis and end of life decisions.

It’s no surprise that she was selected as the recipient of the American Animal Hospital Association 2009 Animal Welfare and Humane Ethics Award which she will receive in Phoenix in a couple of weeks.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as we have. And what a wonderful set of tools we now have with Dr. Kay’s book covering the veterinary side and your wonderful books covering the behavior and training side.

You’ve probably already made your decision about amputation, but I’d like to say that I was there about a month ago and found a lot of support at the Tripawds website. It’s worth looking at. I went ahead with the surgery because of the pain and the chance of the bone breaking, and my Cemil, an Anatolian Shepherd, is getting along fine on three legs.

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About the Author

Patricia B. McConnell, PhD, CAAB is an applied animal behaviorist who has been working with, studying, and writing about dogs for over twenty-five years. She encourages your participation, believing that your voice adds greatly to its value. She enjoys reading every comment, and adds her own responses when she can.

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Patricia is known the world over for her clear and engaging books and DVDs on dog training and canine behavior problems. You can also “meet” Patricia in person on her seminar DVDs, from The Art & Science of Canine Behavior to Treating Dog-Dog Reactivity.